PATIENCE: AN INTRODUCTION to the CONCEPT

Abstract

The paper considers the definition and characteristics of concept within the main aspects of its study, in particular, epistemological, philosophical, linguo-cultural, cognitive and psycholinguistic. The experience of working out the various approaches to the interpretation and formation of the concept is reflected. Patience is one of the key concepts on which society relies, using it as a key to maintain human rights and freedoms. The genesis of patience in philosophy is related to the person‟s representation of the world, the formation of abstract norms of behaviour and the embodiment of this behaviour in a particular situation. In modern cognitive linguistics, studying of the concept is rather actual and controversial nowadays, as it is functionally significant for the corresponding culture. Any concept is realized in language units. We have made the semantic-etymological analysis of the word patience and come to the conclusion that semantic structure of the concept “patience” in English consists of the different meanings, forming the conceptual layer of the investigated concept.